★ Michelin Star Series ★
Dulcey & Hazelnut Architecture
Dulcey Mousse · Hazelnut Crémeux · Dulcey Aero · Hazelnut Tuile · Hazelnut Ice Cream
A multi-textured masterpiece that takes a single, extraordinary ingredient — the hazelnut — and explores every state it can achieve: creamy, aerated, frozen, crisp, and molten.
⏱ Prep: 4 hours · ⏲ Freeze: overnight · 🌰 Serves: 6 · ⭐ Difficulty: Expert
The Philosophy
The greatest Michelin desserts are not collections of ingredients — they are arguments about a single idea. Dulcey & Hazelnut Architecture is an argument about one thing: the hazelnut, and how many forms of pleasure it is capable of delivering simultaneously.
Valhona’s Dulcey chocolate — blond, caramelised, biscuity — is the perfect amplifier for hazelnut’s roasted depth. Together they appear here as a cloud-light mousse, a dense silky crémeux, an aerated chocolate called Aero, a gossamer tuile, and a pale golden ice cream. Five preparations. One ingredient. One plate.
This is architecture. Every element must be in its place, or the whole edifice collapses.
Ingredients
01 — Dulcey Mousse
200g Valhona Dulcey chocolate
3 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
100ml whole milk
350ml double cream (whipped to soft peaks)
2 gelatine leaves
02 — Hazelnut Crémeux
150g toasted hazelnut paste
4 egg yolks
80g caster sugar
250ml whole milk
250ml double cream
3 gelatine leaves
03 — Dulcey Aero
300g Dulcey chocolate, tempered
N₂O cream whipper (iSi siphon)
2 gelatine leaves
100ml double cream
(Requires a vacuum chamber or siphon technique)
04 — Hazelnut Tuile
100g isomalt or fondant
50g glucose syrup
80g toasted hazelnuts, finely crushed
Pinch of flaky salt
05 — Hazelnut Ice Cream
500ml whole milk
200ml double cream
6 egg yolks
140g caster sugar
120g roasted hazelnut paste
Pinch of sea salt
The Method
Step 01 — Hazelnut Ice Cream (night before)
Warm milk and cream together. Whisk yolks and sugar until pale. Temper the hot cream into the yolks. Cook to 82°C, stirring constantly. Off heat, whisk in hazelnut paste and salt until fully emulsified. Strain through a fine sieve, cool over ice, then churn. Freeze overnight. Temper 5 minutes before service and quenelle to order.
Step 02 — Hazelnut Crémeux
Make a crème anglaise with milk, cream, yolks and sugar (cook to 82°C). Off heat, whisk in hazelnut paste and bloomed gelatine. Cool to 40°C, pour into a piping bag and pipe into 4cm dome moulds. Freeze until solid. Unmould and allow to defrost in the fridge for 2 hours before plating.
Step 03 — Dulcey Mousse
Make a pâte à bombe: whisk yolks while pouring hot sugar syrup (120°C) in a thin stream. Continue until cool and ribbon stage. Melt Dulcey chocolate to 45°C. Bloom and melt gelatine in warm milk, stir into chocolate. Fold pâte à bombe into chocolate, then fold in softly whipped cream in two additions. Pour into rectangular moulds and freeze 4 hours minimum.
Step 04 — Dulcey Aero (Siphon Method)
Melt Dulcey with cream and bloomed gelatine. Cool to 35°C. Pour into an iSi siphon, charge with 2 N₂O cartridges. Dispense into a container lined with cling film to 2cm depth and freeze immediately. Once solid, cut into irregular shards. Keep frozen until plating.
Step 05 — Hazelnut Tuile
Heat isomalt and glucose to 160°C. Stir in crushed hazelnuts and salt off the heat. Pour onto a silicone mat and allow to cool to a manageable temperature. Pull and stretch into thin sheets while still pliable. Break into shards when cool. Store in an airtight container with silica gel to prevent softening.
Step 06 — Plating (The Architecture)
Build the plate from the base: place the Dulcey mousse rectangle slightly left of centre. Set the hazelnut crémeux dome at 2 o’clock. Lean a large Aero shard against the mousse at an angle. Place the hazelnut tuile shard vertically in the crémeux. Quenelle the ice cream and rest against the opposite side. Finish with three roasted whole hazelnuts, a dusting of hazelnut powder through a fine sieve, and micro gold leaf fragments.
Chef’s Secrets
Dulcey Temperature
Dulcey chocolate is more heat-sensitive than dark. Never exceed 45°C when melting. Use a bain-marie and thermometer at all times.
Hazelnut Paste
Use 100% pure roasted hazelnut paste, not praline paste. The difference in flavour intensity is enormous. Piedmont hazelnuts are the professional standard.
The Aero
Work fast once the siphon is discharged. The aerated chocolate sets within minutes. Have your freezer tray ready before you dispense.
The Tuile
Humidity is the enemy of tuile. Always store with silica gel and make on the day of service. Isomalt stays crisp longer than regular sugar.
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